Anyone a pet groomer on here?

[saphron]

Anyone a pet groomer on here? I was thinking about a career in pet groomer. Any advice for a future pet groomer?

[wolfsoul]

Hi there, welcome to PT.

I am a pet groomer -- let me tell you, it's definatly hard work. When you're drying, hair goes EVERYWHERE. You are literally picking hair out of your eyes, mouth, and nose every few seconds. When you go home, you pull hair out of your clothes, and you'll wake up in the morning with a clump of hair in your mouth. when you blow your nose, chunks of hair will come out. It's not a good job for wearing makeup because the hair just sticks to it. Hair literally entwines itself into the fabric of your clothes and is stuck there forever -- a groomer I work with noticed that she has hair entwined in the skin of her hands that will stay there forever. In other words TONS and TONS of hair. Lol. It's also very hard on your back. You have to bend over to bathe, and sometimes dry (I mostly sit when I dry) and you stand alot of the time you groom as well (I like to sit when I groom, but it's not always possible). Obviously there is a large bite factor -- my advice is to know dog behaviour well and understand what is going through a dog's head. Also get to know your breeds -- I've noticed a very strong connection between breeds and biting -- some breeds just don't tolerate grooming or handling well, even when raised with it. You can't care about being a mess. Just yesterday I was holding a dog and it peed all over me. Not a pleasant experience lol. You'll be cleaning up lots of pee, and poop, and you guessed it --- hair. Remember that it isn't always about hanging out with dogs. Things have to go by so quickly that you barely have time to pet the dog -- it's get the dog, groom the dog, give the dog back. It's a very rushed environment.

The best piece of advice I can give you is to call around and see who accepts volunteers, or if you are at school age, see if anyone accepts work experience workers. I was very lucky to be hired after doing work experience at a grooming parlour.

It's tough, but I love my job. It's something I wanted to do, I feel like I'm doing something, I enjoy being around dogs even if I don't get to play with them, and most of all I love the people I work with. I feel that I've made very valuable and permanant friends. We do stuff together, I'm moving in with one of my co-workers, and just today my boss and a co-worker and I all went to a huge agility comp. MY boss even drives me to and from work everyday. It's like a big family. Of course, not all shops are like that...But hopefully you are lucky. Good luck.

[slick]

A very warm welcome to Pet Talk. I'm sure you will enjoy it here.

Along with Wolfsoul, I know that Jenluckenbach is a groomer and I'm sure she will chime in here when she gets a chance.

[wolfsoul]

Shelteez2 and Wolf_Q are also groomers. I believe that Twisterdog is as well.

[jenluckenbach]

Woulfsoul has hit a great many good points about grooming. Allow me to add.............listening to constant barking, picking poop off of butts, expressing anal glands, eye goop so thick there is diaper rash on the skin under the eye, dogs who are (for no better term) neglected for a full year and THEN brough to the groomers with 5 pound mats hanging from them and reeking of urine, bending, lifting, struggling with uncooperative animals, brushing dogs who have not only been neglected for months but don't like it being done, sometimes for hours non-stop without a break, customers who can't seem to WAIT for the dog to be finished, loud dryers, HOT air that even air conditioners cannot get rid of, flying hair (was that mentioned?), biting, dogs digging to get out of the crates because they were not taught how to stay peacefully in a cage, dogs literally throwing their heads violently from side to side while you need to clip the hair off their face and then the owner complaining about why it doesn't look 100% perfect, very few (if any) shops will give any type of benefits, I barely get a lunch minute, if I take longer I would be bombarded with phone calls from impatient customers wanting their pet back, I go home totally EXHAUSTED both physically and mentally only to have to go back and do it again tomorrow.

~WHEW~

That felt good. But I an being 100% honest. You need to love dogs, you must be willing to work hard, quickly, effectively and with little reward, and except for the fact that good groomers are very hard to find and your job will probably be very secure there really are not a lot of perks.


The best things I can see about my job (besides the fact that I am good at what I do and that in itself is rewarding) are.......you don't spend a lot on work clothes, you can dress very comfortably, many times you have the ability to select your own hours, if you'd like a short day most of the time you can just schedule less clients and get out early, you can talk, joke and do silly things because most of the time the people clients are not in the shop (and the dogs won't tell on you) , I get to work with many cats (as I do the majority of them), and I enjoy that very much.

I do recommend starting as a bather (many shops will train you for this) and see if you really like doing it. Good luck.

[saphron]

Thank you for all the advice, its has been really helpful. I'm not sure if I want to be a pet groomer or not. I just graduated from High School and still haven't decided on what I want to do with my life. I love animals and I just melt when I see a cute cat or dog. Something tells me I should do this but I'm not sure. I hope God can lead me to the right direction.

[cocker_luva]

i work with groomers.

[Vette]

On my internet friends is a groomer.

i groom my own dog,, but im not a gromer..
ive thought of becoming one though. but i have issues with my hands...too much water and they dry up really fast. even with tons of lostion.

[Shelteez2]

Both wolfsoul and jenluckenbach have pretty much covered everything I can think of. It is hard work. And yet it is rewarding too. You will learn patience you never thought you could have. And I don't only mean patience in dealing with animals....that's actually the easy part....I mean dealing with clients too. lol

I also agree with jen when she suggested you start as a bather. Find a respected grooming shop in your area and inquire about getting a job as a bath/dry person. You will get a feel for the job and learn the ins and outs.

Oh and Vette brought up another really good point....your hands will never be the same regardless of how much lotion you use....lol

[Pam]

I don't groom professionally but I have been grooming my own poodles for over 30 year (not the same dogs! LOL!) As I get older it gets harder! LOL! Sometimes I wish I could shrink my standard poodle down to the size of my mini and it would go so much faster. Good luck to you as you weigh the pros and cons.

[saphron]

This might sound like a stupid question but I'll ask it anyway: can you wear protective eyeware while your grooming an animal so the hair won't get in your eye. I wear contacts and I'm afraid the hair would tear up my contacts

[Shelteez2]

I suppose you could....

I wear both glasses and contacts though and I find that for some reason I get more hair in my eyes when I'm wearing my glasses.

The hair has never really seemed to bother my contacts and I've been doing this for 4 years now. You do get used to it eventually...picking hair out of your eyes becomes second nature....lol

[jenluckenbach]

I already wear glasses so I do not wear anything else. I do often wonder how people without glasses can work without protection. I personally would never wear contacts while at work, but that is just me.
I do, on the other hand, wear ear plugs!